And The Verge has learned that the company is currently in talks with Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms to potentially raise a new round of funding. Sources familiar with the negotiations say DJI reported around $500 million in revenue for 2014, roughly four times what it did in 2013, and is on pace to do about $1 billion in sales this year. The potential valuation of the company would be a healthy multiple of that, several billion dollars, although no deal has yet been finalized.

Jayson Hanes, a UAV enthusiast, is in the middle of an FAA-induced controversy. He received a letter [pdf link] from the FAA telling him that they received a complaint about his commercial use of UAVs and it appers to be valid because he has monetization on his YouTube channel. He does’t do commercial aerial photography, in other words, he has never been hired nor is he for hire for your next wedding. He simply flies his DJI Phantom Vision around, records the sights and posts the video on YouTube. Ah, he is also enrolled in YouTube’s monetization program, so ads show up either before you watch his videos or a small banner is shown. More…

Paris, the city of light, seems to have a “drone” issue, as reported by the media. There have been many accounts of unmanned aerial vehicles flying illegally around the city, around landmarks, and generally arousing the anger and suspicion of Parisians. According to the reports I’ve read, it is illegal to fly an unmanned aerial vehicle in Paris. The following is a timeline of the events, and they seem to be a recurring issue, as there are still reports coming out. More…

At UAV not Drone we like to feature organizations that are using unmanned aerial vehicles for the greater good and we have found a very interesting social network that is committed to serving humanitarian purposes, http://UAViators.org. They are self-described as “A global network of civilian/hobbyist UAV pilots who safely and responsibly fly UAVs to support peaceful, humanitarian efforts and their mission is as follows:

Our Mission is to bridge humanitarian and UAV communities internationally. We do this by supporting a global volunteer network of professional, civilian and responsible hobbyist UAV pilots who facilitate information sharing, coordination and operational safety in support of a broad range of humanitarian efforts.

In this episode of the UAV not Drone podcast, I talk about the new set of proposed regulations by the FAA for commercial UAV use in the United States. I interview Brant Hadaway, a practicing attorney that specializes in UAS laws and regulation to discuss the FAA’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for small unmanned aerial systems.

You know the scenario, you’re having an amazing flight, but you’ve got to land because you’re running low on electrons. But what if you could charge your craft while your’re flying, untethered? A Canadian company called Solace Power, in partnership with Boeing, are working to make wireless charging more efficient, and they demonstrate the way their prototype works in the video above, with the green light indicating that the multirotor is charging, mid-air. From TechCrunch:

Introducing the New York City Drone Film Festival, a sold out event created to highlight cinematography captured via your favorite flying platform, the “drone”. The screening will take place on March 7th, 2015, and they might add a second screening, so hold on your your hats. From their website:

Presenting the NoFlyzone, a community driven database of properties that will prevent “drones” from flying over your house. Actually, its just a site where you can submit your property without residence verification and somehow in the future, UAV manufacturers will use this data to prevent their craft from flying over your property. Just like DJI is doing for the White House. Oh, nevermind.